Articles Posted inPrudential

FINRA has banned Winston Wade Turner from the securities industry. The former Prudential (PRU) and MetLife (MET) broker is accused of engaging in deceptive variable annuities sales. Turner was fired from Pruco Securities, a Prudential subsidiary, in 2015. The cause of his firing was deceptive sales practices.

Now, FINRA has barred him for a number of causes, including giving false information to clients about variable annuity sales, the fraudulent misrepresentation and omission of key facts to customers about the sales, providing false information in VA-related documents, and not giving testimony to the self-regulatory organization during its probe into this matter.

According to the SRO, Turner fraudulently misrepresented and omitted material facts about VA sales and concealed that he had persuaded a lot of customers to give up existing variable annuities or other investments so that they would buy the newer VAs that he was selling. He is accused of persuading at least 12 clients to trade their existing investments for this purpose, costing them over $150K in surrender charges.

Prudential Securities has been plagued by claims over its deferred compensation plan, known as MasterShare. A number of former representatives have filed claims and recovered damages.

Started in 1999, MasterShare allowed Pru employees to deduct up to 25 percent of their gross pay to purchase discounted shares of a stock index fund. This discount had the effect of a company match of the funds deducted. Yet, the plan also provided that if the employee left the firm early he or she not only forfeited the company’s “match” but also the portion withheld from his or her check!

With the threat of forfeiture of a substantial portion of the employee’s pay, some representatives claim they became hostages of Prudential. One former broker trainee says the firm promoted the plan as a pension plan and that he was “strongly encouraged” to join with the further suggestion that those not participating were perceived as “transients”.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) announced today that five major brokerage firms have agreed to pay fines totaling $2.4 million for supervision violations and improper mutual fund sales to thousands of investors. These firms must take remedial steps to prevent such actions in the future and pay amounts estimated to exceed $25 million to their clients because of such practices.

According to FINRA, the violations include sales by these firms of load securities, meaning clients were required to pay commissions, when these investors were eligible to make fund exchanges without paying commissions. FINRA’s press release states that “Class B and Class C mutual fund shares and failure to have supervisory systems designed to provide all eligible investors with the opportunity to purchase Class A mutual fund shares at net asset value (NAV) through NAV transfer programs.”

Prudential Securities must pay an $800,000 fine, UBS Financial Services, Inc. was fined $750,000 and Pruco Securities was hit for $100,000 for improper sales of Class B and Class C mutual fund shares. These firms also agreed to remediation plans that will address over 27,000 fund transactions in the accounts of 5,300 households. Merrill Lynch, Prudential Securities, UBS and Wells Fargo must take steps regarding customers who qualified for but did not receive the benefit of NAV transfer programs. It is estimated that total remediation to fhese firms’ customers will exceed $25 million.

On February 15, the NASD announced that it was charging two former prudential brokers with helping a hedge fund manager to time the market through variable annuities. The former broker’s supervisor was also charged with failure to properly supervise them. Both brokers were registered with Prudential Securities Inc., now called Prudential Equity Group, during this time.

David Corn and Jeffrey Doerr allegedly helped Paul Saunders, a client, by opening 20 accounts for him under the names of a number of limited partnerships that had been created by Saunders. The limited partnerships had the same beneficial owners as James River Capital Corp., which was Saunders’s market timing hedge fund. The NASD says that the two brokers should have known their client would use the accounts for the purpose of market timing variable annuities and that the limited partnership had the same beneficial owners.

The SRO says that, between October 2001 and September 2003, Saunders executed about 900 variable annuity sub-account transactions with the brokers’ help. These transactions earned about $5.2 million, while violating the restrictions set up by insurance companies that offered annuities. The two brokers made about $45,000 each from these trades and their commissions.